A "Green" First Birthday

Each day the U.S. throws away enough trash to fill 63,000 garbage trucks; the average person creates 4.39 pounds per day or 56 tons each year. Although I have always considered this fact and tried to tread as lightly as possible, everything changed after my son was born. With the threat of global warming and the fact that each day we seem to be toxifying the space we live, it scared me to think what mess would be left behind for the children in his generation. As he grew closer to his first birthday, I envisioned the mountains of trash that could be generated and we decided to celebrate his first year by having a 'no waste' event. We are already considered 'on the fringe' with most of our family, so the fact that we were not planning a Sesame Street-themed party did not surprise anyone.

Invitations were easy to send over the Internet and we were able to be extremely descriptive with our requests. Everything brought into our house for the party needed to be recyclable or compostable, including gifts and wrapping. For those family members (e.g. grandparents) without email, we personally called them with the details. We were specific with the types of gifts, brands, sizes, and the fact that people should consider the packaging before purchasing and bring their own bags to the stores. Of course, we also recommended not bringing a gift or giving something used, but that was not a realistic suggestion for either of our families. We preferred all wrapping to be done with materials people already had on hand, for example, colorful newspaper, clothes they would then take home, gift bags they had been given. Surprisingly most family members were excited by the challenge and brought some rather interestingly wrapped gifts. And like most children, Lukas was more fascinated with the wrappings and any box-like contraption than the actual gift.

Food was another issue as we wanted a grill-able item as well as the traditional summer salads. It seemed everything we tried to buy from buns to pasta had some sort of plastic packaging. We opted to purchase our bread products from a local bakery and brought our own bag (we requested no plastic in advance) and for the rest we either selected items with only cardboard packaging or we bought in bulk using our own containers or recyclable paper bags. It was an intense process and several times my husband cajoled me to give in, claiming we were generating more wasted time with the amount of hours we had to plan and comb the grocery stores. The only area in which I listened to him was with the dairy products. No matter how hard we tried, we inevitably threw away a few plastic bags from the cheese we purchased.

All of the plates, cups, and utensils were either our own (which we cleaned in a full dishwasher) or compostable, and we used cloth table coverings and napkins. We cleaned our house before the party with non-toxic products and used the fruit and vegetables on hand, as well as flowers from our neighbor's garden, to decorate and add some warmth to the rooms and tables. With the extra people, we needed more outdoor furniture and borrowed from friends and neighbors.

The last item to consider was party favors as we wanted to send people home with a momento of Lukas. We decided on blown up pictures of Lukas with each person from his first year of life. Luckily everyone that attended had been photographed with Lukas at some point during the year and we had them enlarged at a local store, asking them not to package the pictures. The pictures were displayed around our house during the party and, as people left, we gave them their photos home to hang.

Although we set out to have a 'no-waste' event it was not always possible and one could argue that there were also car emissions from travel for attendees as well as what it took in getting the food to our grocery stores and bakery and then to our home. We also used a grill and I baked Lukas' cake in our gas oven. But we contemplated every facet of the event and used as few resources as possible. Becoming mindful of the results of our actions is the first step in creating change.

See the Zero Waste Events Planning Checklist article in this section to help you at your next event.